In the News: Talbot Davis Authors Book

[This article appeared in The Charlotte Observer on May 28, 2015, Reporter: Marty Minchin]

Good Shepherd pastor authors book based on sermons

Talbot Davis collects catchy titles. Davis, the senior pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Steele Creek, has pages of ideas that he has jotted down for years. He often uses them to name or inspire five or six weeks of preaching. A recent sermon series on the book of Nehemiah in the Bible, for example, was called “Solutionists.” “I’m always on the lookout for puns and turns of phrase and new words,” Davis said. Davis’ sermon series “Head Scratchers,” which is about obscure sayings of Jesus, caught the eye of an editor at Abingdon Press, a Methodist publisher based in Nashville. After taking lessons in social media from a church member, Davis had been promoting his sermons and blog on Facebook and Twitter and had developed a following among Methodists. “We saw it online while Talbot was still in the middle of delivering the series at Good Shepherd and knew it was something that people would resonate with,” Brian Sigmon, an Abingdon Press editor, wrote in an email. On June 3, Good Shepherd Church will host a book release party for “Head Scratchers,” Davis’ first book. Abingdon has two more books of Davis’ sermons in the works.